Five Numbers That Matter for Seahawks vs. Rams in NFC Championship Game

It’s nearly here. Championship Sunday. By the time we snuggle into our beds on Sunday night, we will know the two participants in Super Bowl LX. And, for Seattle fans, it’s extra exciting since the Seahawks have a very real chance at being one of those two teams left standing.

First things first: the Los Angeles Rams stand in their way. Some argue that these are the two best teams left in the entire NFL. How can the Seahawks come out victorious? What are the most important factors for the winning team?

Let’s dive into five numbers that matter when it comes to this NFC Championship Game between division rivals:

0

That is the amount of sacks the Seahawks have on Matthew Stafford in the last two seasons. Not getting to Stafford is playing with fire. We saw that in the Thursday Night Football matchup in Seattle, where he had his greatest passing day in his Rams career with 457 passing yards and three scores. That’s what happens when you don’t get the almost-38-year-old on the ground. The Seahawks have shown they can win and even dominate on defense without stockpiling big sack numbers. However, in a game like this, with the matchup with Stafford and Sean McVay, it feels imperative that Demarcus Lawrence and the Seahawks put the veteran quarterback on the ground a few times.

415

The Seahawks averaged allowing just 286 yards of total offense per game to the opponent in the regular season. Yet, the L.A. Rams have averaged 415 yards between the two tight contests. There is something the Rams have figured out about Mike Macdonald’s squad that most have not. The Thursday Night Football win for Seattle was not without the Seahawks allowing a whopping 581 yards of total offense to McVay’s unit. It’s hard to find many games where a team nearly allows 600 total yards and wins. This isn’t Pac-12 After Dark. If the Seahawks allow the Rams to move the ball with that much ease, exceeding 400-plus yards, they will have a hard time winning the game. The other two times they allowed more than 350 total yards this year (Buccaneers and Week 1 vs. the 49ers), they lost. On defense, this game needs to look a lot more like the one the Seahawks lost in Los Angeles, when they allowed just 249 yards.

9.1

If the Seahawks are going to win the game, they will need to do it with a strong effort from running back Kenneth Walker III. For two reasons: one, because Seattle has been white-hot lately, mostly due to a strong running game. That needs to continue. Secondly, he is without the “Robin” to his “Batman.” Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL and is out for the year and likely will miss time next year. Walker needs to shoulder more of the load. He certainly did that in their previous matchup with the Rams, when he averaged 9.1 yards per carry on 11 carries. He doesn’t necessarily need to average over nine yards per carry, as that is rare, but it paints the picture of what the Seahawks, and Walker, need to do to score enough points to beat L.A. When Walker averages at least 4.3 yards per carry, Seattle is 8-1 this season. It’s fair to say, the Seahawks need at least that.

1,080

You might need a microscope to find the smallest dent in the armor of the Seahawks defense in 2025. However, it’s there. It’s been tight ends. The Seahawks have allowed 1,080 receiving yards to tight ends this season, sixth-worst in the NFL. Former Seahawk Colby Parkinson and Tyler Higbee cannot be allowed to make big plays when the Seahawks have the likes of Puka Nacua taken care of. Neither Higbee nor Parkinson made huge splashes in either matchup this season. However, this is a game where one big third down conversion, one big touchdown in the redzone, could be the difference. And the tight ends are an easy target in those situations for a veteran quarterback like Stafford, especially with the Rams regularly using 13 personnel with three tight ends on the field at once.

8-1

This one isn’t necessarily an individual number per se, but allow me to push the boundary for this. This is the record of teams with the No. 1 scoring defense when facing the No. 1 scoring offense in either the conference championship game or Super Bowl. Of course, the Seahawks, and their fans, are very familiar with one of those wins for the No. 1 scoring defense. It came in Super Bowl XLVIII when Seattle’s Legion of Boom demolished the high-flying Broncos attack led by Peyton Manning, 43-8. 8-1 is not a small sample size. It suggests that this late in the year, defense truly does win championships. This alone should give Seahawks fans reason to believe they could be booking tickets to Santa Clara for the second Sunday in February. This defense is legit. It’s championship-caliber. They simply need to score enough points on the other side of the ball to make it happen.